This expansion pack is decent however it feels like it's missing something, the landscapes seem to be missing that charm, and TBH look rather dull, it is only until I reached Isengard that I was actually impressed with the visuals. The questing content is strong, with quests that are much better than ones seen in Mirkwood, however saying that, they seemed to lack character for me, I rarely found myself truly engaged with the content. The PvE and PvM are still pretty solid, and keep the combat quests interesting. Overall its a worth while purchase if you're already a player/fan of LOTRO.

If you ignore the communication issues, Rise of Isengard was truly not a bad expansion. The content was fun and well thought out, and the landmass was iconic. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it does not deserve a 4.7 user score.

The new RoI expansion shows clearly that this game is but a shadow of it's former glory. And with the recent additions of gambling boxes and mid-level gear to the store, Turbine seems a bit desperate. While the slow decline of middle earth is very fitting to the story, as a gamer you'd really expect a game to improve itself over time. RoI is basically a super-sized quest pack like others in the game, except this one is selling for $30. There is a fair amount of quests, but you're forced to follow the linear, pre-determined path which gives little re-playability and they're almost all of the 'go kill 10 wolves' and 'now go back and kill the wolf-boss' variety. One of the early quest-hubs, Trum Dreng, is a nice variation though, with a catching storyline and good use of the new phasing tech that changes the village's appearance as the story progresses. Too bad it's not even 1/10th of the expansion.